Morning Skin Routine

by blondewithcoffeeNovember 26, 2021December 18, 2021

Sorry for the three week hiatus, between the Thanksgiving holiday, working Black Friday, and finishing my university career, things have been crazy, but I’m back! So I’ve covered in a previous post all about my night skin routine (if you haven’t checked that out, I’ll link it here), but my morning routine is a little bit different. Where at night my products are more geared towards repairing the skin from damage after a long hard day, my morning routine is all about trying to prevent the damage to begin with. So the first big difference between the two are that there are a couple of more steps and definitely a few more products than in the evening.

Cleansing and Essence

A good place to start is at the beginning, and both morning and night starts in the same place: a good wash. I love using Fresh’s Soy cleanser on my face brush (the same every night), though I do now follow it with a new product, Fresh’s Kombucha essence. If you’re unfamiliar with an essence, it’s whole primary role is to help with better absorption of other products such as serums and moisturizers. What I love about Fresh’s is that by being based in kombucha means it’s high in probiotics that also help with skins luminosity as well as pollution protection.

Serums

When it comes down to serums, Peach and Lily’s glass skin serum has been a long time favorite of mine; with ingredients like niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, and peach extract, it helps to brighten the skin, gives beautiful luminosity, and reduces pore size and redness. It’s just an all in one serum that fits so many different skin types and needs. I personally also love using a vitamin c serum in the morning; it helps give the skin a beautiful glow as well as helps in the longterm in reducing the appearance of dark spots. I normally love experimenting with different ones just since every vitamin c is formulated a bit differently (vitamin c is notoriously unstable so quite a bit goes into formulating it). Currently, I’m using Tula’s which is a triple vitamin c complex, meaning that the vitamin c actually comes from three different sources.

Moisturizer

Winter is beginning to set in here in Texas, that means my already dry skin is entering drastic drought territory. So I’ve decided to switch it up and go back to one of my old favorites that I haven’t used in quite a while: Drunk Elephant’s Protini Polypeptide Cream. It gives me amazing hydration, and I love the fact that the pump means that I don’t have to put my fingers in the jar (which low-key grosses me out.)

Eye Care

I love a good eye cream, but there are mornings when my eyes just need a little bit more (i.e. the dark circles and puffiness is more than my concealer is going to be able to cover). So depending on how much time I have in the mornings, I do try to put eye patches on after I cleanse to let them sit while I apply serums and let them skin in. Skyn Iceland’s have been a long time favorite of mine, however I have been also enjoying Tinted’s new Copper Rays which have copper peptides in them. I also love a good eye balm (i.e. please refer to my previous reference of hating putting my fingers in jars), and Tula’s new 24/7 swipe is basically eye cream in a stick and is so quick in the mornings to use.

Protection

The final step to any morning skin routine is SPF. There are so many people under the impression that sunscreen is something that you only use in summer and they are dead wrong. The fact of the matter is that you’re exposed to UV radiation every single day n o matter the season so you need to protect yourself every single day. I personally use Tula’s glow sunscreen; I love that it’s a gel so it’s super lightweight and wears really well under my makeup, and as well as offering UV protection, it also offers blue light protection (aka protection against the light from screens like your phone, laptop, and tv).

So those are all of the products in my current morning skincare routine. Again, keep in mind, that these are the products that work for me and my skin type. They may or may not work for you depending on your skin type and the concerns or issues that you are wanting to address. I hope you enjoyed this post, all of my socials are linked if you want to give me a follow. See you next week!

Current Night Skin

by blondewithcoffeeOctober 22, 2021October 15, 2021

We can all agree that getting home at the end of an extremely long day is a sigh of relief, and just like how you want to kick your shoes off at the end of the day, so does your skin (theoretically speaking). Night is the time when your skin is at it’s most relaxed, after a long stressful day of being exposed to different kinds of stressors, whether those are outside aggressors like environmental (like pollution) or internal (example: consuming six cups of coffee and not one ounce of water). Your nighttime routine should be as be as different from your morning as well night and day; where in the morning the concern is about protecting your skin, at night you should be concerned with repairing your skin. The order in which you would use your products also changes depending on the products in your routine. For example: if you use toners or essences (which I haven’t been lately), then they would go after your cleanser but before your serums. I’ve actually been downgrading my routine lately in an attempt to be more efficient with my time so it’s pretty simple: a double cleanse, followed my two serums then my moisturizer and eye cream.

Step 1: Cleansing

Just as with any skincare routine, the first thing you need to do is cleanse your skin to get all the dirt and gunk out of your pores as well as any makeup from that day. To begin, I go in with Juice Beauty’s Stem Cellular Cleansing Oil to melt off any makeup from earlier before doing a light rinse and using Fresh’s Soy Cleanser on my PMD brush.

Step 2: Serum

After cleansing, it’s time to attempt to repair some of the damage from the day. Retinol has always been a popular night serum, though unfortunately with my sensitive skin it has always been a struggle to find just the right one that’s going to give me results while not breaking me out in. Enter in the chat the new retinol from Kiehl’s: it’s a microdose serum which means that it’s gentle and safe enough for everyday use. I am honestly obsessed with this serum and pair it with Fresh’s Rose Oil-in-Serum. Rose is well known for it’s ability to help with cell turnover, so it’s just an obvious choice to pair to help with night repair.

Step 3: Moisturize

And finally, moisturizing and sealing in those amazing serums that I used. Currently I’ve still been rocking the Tula Dew Your Thing oil-free gel cream, which is giving me the hydration that I need while still being lightweight in all of this persistent humidity. As hopefully it starts to cool down soon, I will probably transition into a heavier cream but for now this works like a charm.

So that is my current night time skincare routine. A big thing to take from this post is while this routine and these products work for me, they may or may not work for depending at your skin type and needs. It’s really important to listen to your skin and it’s needs rather than trying a product because it’s trendy. I hope you enjoyed this post and learned a few different things. My socials are all linked if you want to keep up with me, and I post here every Friday. Until next time, have a great week!

Current Loves From Ulta’s Conscious Beauty Collection

by blondewithcoffeeJuly 2, 2021July 1, 2021

As people grow more and more aware of the ingredients on their skin, there has been growing push for transparency from brands as well as for cleaner ingredients to be used. Both Ulta and Sephora have begun having collections of brands that they have deemed “clean” according to the standards they have set. This week I want to focus on Ulta Beauty’s “Conscious Beauty Collection”; this collection has five pillars that each brand needs to meet at least two of, they are: clean ingredients, cruelty free, vegan, sustainable packaging, and positive impact.

Tula Balancing Act Toning Pads

As the Texas summer starts to heat up, my skin turns into a grease pit, so I need something to balance that out. I absolutely adore these pads as much as I do all of Tula’s other products I’ve tried. Tula has made a name for themselves with their clean, probiotics based formulas (if you haven’t checked out my post devoted to them, you can click here), but their new toning pads take it to the next level. Instead of glycolic acid like the first one they launched, these use lactic acid as well as witch hazel and niacinaminde to help with oil control. What makes them even better is that they are made of bamboo and biodegradable (hello sustainability), and when you’re done, instead of throwing away the plastic container, you can buy a refill pod to just pop in.

2. Tarte Amazonian Clay BB Cream

My one complaint about Tarte’s Amazonian clay foundation was that while the coverage was amazing, it was so thick that I felt like my skin was being suffocated. This Amazonian clay BB cream though is just enough coverage to hide any discoloration you might be suffering from, but light enough to feel like there’s nothing there. I also love that the formula is vegan, cruelty-free, and has SPF.

3. Drybar Liquid Glass Miracle Smoothing Sealant

Calling all my damaged hair babes that need help containing the frizz, this spray-in treatment is going to be your new best friend. Visiting Drybar is one of my favorite things to do when I visit Austin, and finding out that they’re cruelty-free with clean ingredients and sustainable packaging made me just love them that much more. I absolutely adore the Liquid Glass shampoo and conditioner, but what makes this spray so much better is that it lasts through three washes and gives you heat protection up to 450 degrees F! The entire Smooth Glass line features the iconic Drybar blanc scent with vegan keratin helping to seal, reinforce and smooth the hair cuticle.

4. Peach and Lily Glass Skin Refining Serum

Korean skincare is widely regarded as some of the finest skincare that you can buy on the market (and for good reason), and Peach and Lily’s glass skin serum is a great showcase. One of my all time favorite serums (I’m on my third bottle), this little white bottle is my secret for smooth, glow skin. With key active ingredients like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, peach extract, and peptides, this serum is going to give you hydration, even skin tone, lighten dark spots, and reduce pore size. You can also feel good about using it since Peach and Lily is vegan, gluten free, and cruelty free; it’s also free from any parabens, sulfates, silicons, along with 1,550 other toxic things.

5. St Tropez Self Tanner

As most likely proven about two posts ago, I love a good self tanner, the only bad thing is that they do somewhat have a reputation for not always being the cleanest product to use. So finding out that there’s a self tanner brand being highlighted by Conscious beauty is absolutely amazing. The great thing about the St Tropez line are there are options for everyone, from good ol’ 8 hour tans with guider colors to water-based mousses and sprays to 2 hour express sprays. There’s a fit out there for literally everyone, and one again, no need to feel guilty with clean ingredients, sustainable packaging, and cruelty-free!

6. Pacifica Plantmagic Nail Polish

So fun fact, I am actually allergic to formaldehyde, and about ten years ago when I found out, there were a lot of nail polish brands that unfortunately still used it. Even though as a industry we’ve moved away from using such toxic ingredients, I still never use a nail polish unless it actually says it’s formaldehyde free (you can never be too cautious when there’s a possible hospital visit on the line). I’ve used Pacifica’s skincare in the past, so their new plant based polish really caught my eye. It’s free from 16 of the most harsh chemicals usually found in nail polish (with 80% of the ingredients bio-sourced), 100% vegan and cruelty free, and the polish has lasted just as long on my toes as the other ones I’ve tried. A great thing about Pacifica is their social impact: 10% of all profits go towards cleaning up the Pacific Ocean.

7. Kopari Coconut Deodorant

I love natural deodorant, unfortunately natural deodorant doesn’t always love me. The amount of times that I’ve broken out in a rash from trying a new deodorant is honestly sad. Another problem with natural deodorants is that they always smell, well, natural. I don’t know about anyone else but the whole smelling like lavender and sage doesn’t always work the best with the situation going on under my arms. Enter Kopari: for the people who love natural deodorant but want still smell good. It’s coconut oil based (so great for sensitive skin), and all of their stuff smells nice and fresh and beachy. I actually usually buy the beach scent from them, but they do have a new scent called coastal that honestly also seems like it smells amazing. Kopari is vegan, cruelty-free, with sustainable packaging and clean ingredients.

Thank you so much for tuning in this week, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My socials are all linked if you want to give them a follow, as well as you can follow this blog so you get a notification every time I post (which is every Friday). Till next time!

Tula: Is It Worth the Hype?

by blondewithcoffeeMay 14, 2021May 13, 2021

It seems all over every influencer’s page nowadays, you can see the tell-tale teal package. Tula is a modern day success story of how to grow a brand by using social media. Constantly, you will see them pop up on feeds, limited edition skincare sets curated by different bloggers from all walks of life. But just like any brand you see being constantly promoted by sponsored posts, there’s a very big question mark. Does this stuff really work?

The first time I ever saw a Tula product was on instagram, and I remember it being the eye balm, and I was just completely surprised. I can remember it being one of the first times a skincare product ever caught my eye, but I was also a little skeptical and cautious. I have super sensitive skin, so trying anything that the dermatologist hadn’t suggested to me, I wasn’t something that I was jumping to try. That being said, I am also one of those people who love to chase down internet rabbit trails. So here’s what you need to know about Tula: it was founded by Dr. Roshini Raj, a gastroenterologist who for fifteen years has been studying the effects of probiotics and probiotics in beauty and wellness, it’s a clean brand that’s free of all harsh chemicals and sulfates, certified cruelty-free, with moves towards more sustainable packaging, and once you try them, you are going to be hooked for life.

My Tula Favorites

24/7 Moisturizer

With my eczema, my skin can be very dry (which honestly is kinda an understatement), but especially in the winter months. Enter stage right 24/7 moisturizer. This was the first Tula product I’ve ever tried, and honestly is one of the best moisturizers I’ve ever used. It contains probiotics and superfoods like shea butter, squalene, and vitamin c, and just leaves the skin feeling amazingly soft and hydrated.

2. Face Filter Primer

I have to be honest here, I don’t use this as a makeup primer. Instead, I think of face filter kind of as something that I can just throw on my face and head out the door while still looking put together. I guess I treat it like a tinted moisturizer (which now that there are shades of it, even better!), but at the same time, it’s even lighter than my tinted moisturizer. It is literally like I am just wearing the blurring insta filter around on my face all day. I have the original which is now sunrise in the shades.

3. Protect and Glow Sunscreen

An absolute for everyday, I’m absolutely obsessed. This sunscreen is lightweight, non greasy, and instead of a white cast, leaves you with a stunning glow. Pineapple and papaya (two of my favorite skincare ingredients) help with even skin tone, while the butterfly ginger root means not only are you protected from UV rays, you’re also protected from blue light (aka your phone and laptop screen)! Tula just announced that they’re making this in a supersize, so hopefully that means it takes longer for me to go through a tube.

4. Glycolic Acid Toner

Glycolic Toners are all the rage right now (I’m looking at you the Ordinary), but this one by far the best one I’ve tried. Not only do you get the resurfacing power of the glycolic acid, but you also get prebiotics and hydration factors being added back to your skin so that you’re not dying out your skin.

5. Dew Your Thing Moisturizer

Look, I know, I know. At the beginning of this post I said 24/7 was the best moisturizer I had ever tried, and I still stand by that. But just like how the seasons change so too does my skin, and living in Texas means 100 degree summers and a lot of sweat. I was needing something a little lighter on my skin, and dew your thing was just perfect. It’s oil free, more of a gel, and has prickly pear extract which is great, if like me, your skin tends to be more on the irritated and red side of things.

Linked below is the Tula page, as well as to Terracycle, an amazing program that Tula’s teamed up with to recycle their packaging. Make sure to keep an eye out for next Friday’s post and I hope you have a great week!

https://www.tula.com

https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/brigades/tula#rewards